A Love That Will Never Grow Old
by GreyEyesGlaringAtShonda
Summary: A story of anguish, avoidance, acceptance, and love,as Cristina learns she can never escape her past. CristinaBurke.
1. Chapter 1

**A Love That Will Never Grow Old**

By greyeyedgirl

Summary: Anguish, avoidance, acceptance, and love. A Cristina & Burke story.

Chapter One-Okay, so I am just going to say, you are never, never going to see what's coming. But it will be intense. And you will like it. This is only the first chapter, but no worries, because I don't write unhappy endings.

The chocolate tasted bitter. People would think that Cristina would be fond of bitter chocolate, as she often came off so bitter and harsh herself. But it tasted nasty as it slipped past her teeth, and her taste buds craved the sweet comfort of a Hershey bar.

She kicked the vending machine in annoyance, angry at the crap that it had fed her. She spit the candy bar into the trash, hoping the garbage bin would care for the acrid glob more than she did.

"Eighty hour limit, Yang." Dr. Webber seemed to appear out of nowhere as he crossed by her. She dropped the wrapper with a thud, turning around. "I, um, actually have four hours left," she stammered.

"Lucky Preston will cover for you," Richard muttered, sauntering down the hall.

She rolled her eyes, slightly annoyed, as she pushed her long, heavy-feeling hair off of her shoulder. _Lucky me._

"Hey," Meredith said, walking up to her, tugging on the bottom of her scrub top absentmindedly.

"Hi."

"Anything good left?" Meredith asked, inserting her dollar bill into the slot.

"Not unless you feel like something that tastes like it's been dipped in Southern Comfort and rolled around in dog crap."

Meredith gagged involuntarily, pushing the coin-return button quickly. "You're very talented with your similes."

Cristina shrugged her shoulders, twisting the top of her bottle of diet coke, listening to the satisfactory _hiss_ of bubbles. "Lunch is in an hour."

"I have to go home. My _limit's_ up." Meredith made a face, stashing her wallet back into the pocket of her scrubs. "Last time I had to leave early I ended up reorganizing our entire fridge, my CD collection, and make up bag."

"I unalphatized Burke's medicine cabinet." Meredith laughed, turning with Cristina as they headed down the hall. "So how's it going with you two? I haven't heard any fireworks going off in the OR."

"It's fine, Mer. How's you and Mc_Steamy_?" Meredith shot her a dirty look, turning into the locker room. "Hint taken. You don't want to talk about you and Dr. Burke."

Cristina leaned against a locker, closing her eyes as Meredith changed into her a pair of jeans. "He wants me to move in with him."

"So? You're there all the time anyway. Whenever I call your apartment, you're never there."

"I wasn't there that often before. There was an annoying divorced guy who lived in the apartment next to mine, and I could always hear him crying until I banged on the wall to make him shut up."

Meredith laughed, taking her hair out of it's ponytail. "Not exactly Mister Roger's neighborhood."

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"Cristina." She paused at the sound of his voice. "Hey," she said, looking up and smiling. "I was thinking maybe I could make you dinner tonight. What's your favorite food?"

"Um, spaghetti." She smiled at him, watching his eyes focus on her as she set the pen she'd been scribbling on a chart with down. "What time do you get off tonight?"

"Four."

"Same as me," she said, her eyes glued to him intently.

"What a coincidence."

"Do you want to rent a movie or something? I don't have to be in till 7 tomorrow." 'I _can't_ be in till 7 seven tomorrow,' was a more accurate statement.

"I thought maybe instead we could talk. Find out some things about each other."

"Fine," she said, still smiling.

"Convince you to move into the apartment."

She smiled at him again, but her eyes glimmered now. "Burke."

"Sorry." The word came out tentative, but he hadn't meant it to. Funny how things could come out wrong.

"I have a surgery in a little less than an hour, but we could eat lunch first if you'd like."

"You mean together?" Cristina didn't bother to mask her surprise at this suggestion. Breakfasts and dinners were spent together, but at lunch she sat with her friends, and he chatted about grown-up things with his fellow attendings.

"Would that be all right?" He didn't sound angry, exactly, just curious.

"Yes. It's all right."

"Cristina, you don't have to if you don't want to."

She smiled at him, and the glimmer had shrunk to a speck. "I want to."

They walked to the cafeteria together, moving the way through the busy halls as the only noise that reached their ears was the voice of the other. Burke let her go ahead of him in line, watching her hair jump softly as she balanced her tray. "It's a little chilly. Do you want to eat inside?"

The cafeteria was stark white, as was the norm for Grace. Preston had always liked them, the feeling of clean was comforting to him, but Cristina thought that the over-whiteness was slightly cold, and longed for a splash of life to incorporate them.

"Oh, I forgot ketchup." Cristina looked down at her fries, wondering how on earth she could have forgotten. What was fries without ketchup? A mushy old potato, that's what.

"I'll get it for you," Burke offered, standing up. "Or we could share?"

Cristina smiled, scooping some of the red glob onto her own plate. "Thank you." The ketchup smelled saucy and seemed to glow under the harsh, unrelentless hospital light.

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"Middle name?"

"Nicole. Yours?"

"Michael."

_Michael._ Cristina paused, fitting him to it in her mind. "Okay," she smiled.

"Favorite color?"

"Purple."

He smiled. "Mine too."

Cristina laughed into her spaghetti. "Seriously?"

"Birthday."

"June fifth."

Burke paused.

"Yours?"

He hesitated, feeling the small pinch of his lower lip between his teeth. "October eighteenth."

Cristina studied her warped reflection in the silver fork. "Oh." Her voice was soft. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault." Burke's voice was quiet but firm.

Cristina was quiet for a moment. "Um...favorite...movie."

"Brokeback Mountain."

Cristina laughed, trying to picture it as she toyed with her fork incoherently.

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The bedroom was quiet, and from Cristina's spot under Preston's arm she could read the alarm clock's glaring red numbers, eyes of the devil in a pit of black. **2:27**.

She sometimes wondered why it was times like this that she remembered most clearly. Her mind would sort of swoon, and in her drunken, feverish state, the moments of her childhood would resurface. Not her childhood. Her...babyhood. She closed her eyes and forced herself to withdraw, shrink away from the memory, letting herself exist only in the bed, lying on her side shielded with Preston's embrace.

It had hurt. She remembered that, the pain burning from all sides of her. Yes, it had definitely hurt.

She had her father's hair. His hair and her hair would be mixing on the bed, the vision of it swam in front of her, mixing with the vision in reality of her hair falling onto Burke's comforter.

_"Daddy, it hurts. I don't like it."_

**"Shut up, Cristina. Nobody likes a baby."**

Her tears were climbing inside her, but her 2-year-old self would not let them escape. He was her daddy, and he loved her, and this is what people did when they loved each other. That was what he said, and her father would not lie to her.

_"Daddy, please,"_ _she whispered, her tiny voice a ripple in the emptiness. It wasn't black that she saw when he did this to her. He was pushing against her, and she fell into herself, surrounded by a sea of white in which everything was obvious, and nothing was reality._ **"Cristina, shut up!"**

Why was she remembering _now_? Why did it have to come back when she was with _him?_ She hadn't had this problem with her other boyfriends. She was safe, and happy, and knew Burke would never let her be hurt again. Why did it have to haunt her like this, an everlasting shadow of white emptiness when she could finally be fulfilled?

"Cristina? Are you okay?" Burke's voice was soft and sounded disoriented. Her restless fidgeting had woken him up.

"Yeah. Sorry. Had a bad dream," she whispered. He frowned, still not quite awake, but bent his head to kiss her hair, the soft strands tickling and delighting his lips. "No more bad dreams," he murmured into her ear. She smiled, feeling his arm tighten around her. "No more bad dreams," she whispered.


	2. Chapter 2

**A Love That Will Never Grow Old**

BY GREYEYEDGIRL

chapter 2. C/B, G/A.

"Good morning."

Cristina rolled over in bed, rubbing her eyes. "G'morning," she muttered, trying to shake the sleep out of her. Her hair was sticking to her in clumps, and her skin felt clammy. She shivered.

"Are you all right? You didn't sleep very well. You were having nightmares. Are you cold?"

"I'm fine. Sorry. Still tired. You're right, I _didn't_ sleep very well."

Burke leaned forward and kissed her forehead, brushing her hair back from her sweaty face. "I'm sorry. Do you want to go back to sleep? It's only 4:30. You don't have to be up for another hour and a half, at least."

"No!" Her voice came out frantic. She did not want to go back to sleep. She took a deep breath, trying to smile. "I'm already up," she said, her voice coming out much more calmly. "I don't know why I was having those nightmares."

He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close to him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She smiled. "No."

He brushed another piece of hair off her tired face. "Okay. But-"

She sat up in bed, carefully easing her way out of his embrace. "No buts. I'm fine. Really."

He looked at her skeptically, before shrugging it off, knowing he wouldn't get her to change her mind. "Are you hungry? Coffee?"

"Yes." Her eyes lit up, and she rolled out of bed. "I think maybe I'm going to take a shower. I'm kind of...sweaty."

"You were moaning in your sleep. I tried to wake you up-"

Cristina shrugged to show it was fine.

"Just a bad dream, Burke. No big deal."

Burke studied her for a moment, but shrugged. "Fine. I'll make breakfast and the coffee. You take a shower. Ponder the difficulties of your bad dreams and making my apartment our apartment."

Cristina grimaced to herself as she stumbled into the bathroom, rubbing her forehead tiredly.

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"Sorry I was a little...grumpy this morning. I was just tired."

Burke looked up from the test results he'd been studying. "It's fine," he said dismissively. He looked back down at the lab. "Do you think you're going to have another nightmare tonight?" He asked absentmindedly.

Cristina shuddered involuntarily. Burke looked up, concerned. "I'm sorry. Are you all right?"

"Fine," she lied. He looked at her tentatively for a moment, then smiled.

"Are you on-call tonight?"

"No," he answered, now flipping through his patient's chart. She smiled. "Good. We'll both be home for our first night in our apartment."

Burke snapped the file folder shut, a clasp of air being released in the process. "_Our_ apartment?"

"Assuming you're looking for a messy roommate who snores and has the occasional nightmare."

Burke grinned at her, leading her into a nearby on-call room where they could be alone.

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"So you lied to Burke. Big deal." Meredith smirked at her sarcastically.

"I didn't _lie._ I told him I moved in with him. So I still have my apartment. Big deal."

Meredith was laughing as she spoke. "You _have_ to tell him."

Cristina did a glare/pout, stomping out of the locker room. "Didn't lie," she mumbled to herself.

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Burke was whistling as he strolled through the halls of Seattle Grace. This meant something, because he never whistled. He for some reason always associated that with Matthew Broderick doing the parade scene in "The Music Man."

"Good day?" Derek Shepherd asked, falling into sync with Preston's fast pace.

"Beautiful afternoon. Can I help you with something, Dr. Shepherd?" They turned a corner, as Burke headed for the elevator. "I need a consult. 9-year-old boy, fell during a tree-climbing contest with his best friend. I think his aorta's damaged." Burke nodded slightly to himself, changing his steps so he was following Derek.

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The apartment was quiet when Cristina stepped in that night. She didn't like quiet. It left her mind to do too many weird things. It needed to be in focus in order to work right.

Burke's jacket wasn't hanging up, she figured he must have had a late surgery. There'd been a kid with heart damage from falling out of a tree, George had been going on about it. She threw her keys onto the table before going into the bedroom and collapsing straight onto the bed.

No. That was not going to work. She needed to escape her demons, not invite them in for a tall glass of wine. She left the bedroom, heading for Burke's bookshelf. Maybe he'd have something interesting to read.

No medical texts. How could Burke not possibly have any medical texts? The amount of 'classic' books presented on Burke's bookshelf nearly nauseated her, and she made a mental note to stop by her apartment later and pick up her copy of 'Fight Club.'

Her apartment. Damn. There was still _that_ touchy subject to deal with.

She looked around the apartment. It was Burke's in every way, it was orderly and rational and easy on the eyes. It even smelled like him. But how could she live here? That couch looked comfortable, but when she sat on it she got the feeling of it being sterilized. Everything was so deliberate.

She sat down on one of the chairs, turning on the TV. "The Bachelor." "Medium." The news. Crap.

It was an exhausting race to run, and she hardly ever won. Why did she even bother anymore?

Magazines. Magazines always amused her. She was a magazine-whore. There was a readers digest sitting on the coffee table, and she grabbed it arduously, forcing her mind to close off.

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Burke thought she was asleep when he walked into the bedroom to find her lying on her stomach in bed, a pillow sticking out from under her.

"Hey," he murmured, running his hand over her hair.

Cristina rolled over, clutching the pillow to her and looking pale. "Hi."

"You all right?" His face was ridden with concern.

"I'm fine."

"You've said that word so many times, it doesn't even sound like a word anymore."

Cristina took a deep breath, forcing her lungs to dilate and shrink rhythmically. "I was remembering something. I'm sorry. I'm just really tired. Can we just go to sleep?"

Dr. Burke shrugged, feeling her hair with the tips of his forefinger and thumb. "If you want."

"I do." She leaned forward and uncharacteristically kissed his forehead. He smiled at her, a little surprised. "What was that for?"

She smiled. "It was for not being angry about me. About everything. It was for being Preston Burke." She leaned forward and kissed him again, this time fully. He responded softly, rubbing the side of her face gently. "Night, Burke," she whispered.

"Good night."

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_There was too much blood. There had never been blood before. That was what had been scary. And the fact that she hadn't been crying. Babies were supposed to cry when they got hurt._

"Cristina. Cristina!" She awoke to the feel of Preston's hands on her shoulders, trying to gently shake her away. "Burke..." she mumbled quietly.

"You were having a nightmare again." This time his face showed nothing but solicitude, as he gently caressed her face with his hand.


	3. Chapter 3

_A Love That Will Never Grow Old_

**Chapter 3**

**Greyeyedgirl**

"So. Are you going to tell me about these nightmares, or not?"

"Not." Cristina pulled out the chair at the table, sitting down in front of a plate of pancakes.

Burke looked at her for a moment, before dragging his fork through his eggs listlessly.

Cristina sighed. "It's nothing, all right?"

Burke shrugged. "Fine."

Cristina smiled a small smile, nodding slightly. "Thank you."

"But," Burke said. Cristina's smile disappeared. "These nightmares aren't going to go away until you talk about it."

Cristina set down her fork, getting up from the table to go finish getting ready for work.

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"Are you avoiding Burke again?" Meredith glanced up at her from her spot in the Observation Deck.

"Why would you ask that?" Cristina sat down next to her on the bench.

"You're not stealing all the good patients."

Cristina sighed. "You're right. I'm avoiding Burke."

Meredith's eyes slid sideways towards Cristina. "Have you told him? That you're not really living with him?"

Cristina felt her breathing shallow. "I think I might be living with him. I ended the lease on my apartment."

Meredith smiled a small smile.

"So why the avoidance?"

"Nothing. It's just something stupid. Something he won't let go." Cristina's voice was hesitant.

"Something as in..." Meredith let her voice drift off. Cristina turned to glare at her.

"Something as in something!"

Meredith laughed. "Thanks for clearing things up."

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Cristina threw down her keys as she entered the apartment, closing the door swiftly behind her. This was exactly the reason why she'd wanted to keep her apartment. She'd spent the whole day avoiding Burke, and now she had to walk swiftly into his trap. Maybe he'd planned it that way.

Burke wasn't back yet. She had to admit this surprised her, after she had surreptitiously avoided him all day, she'd figured he'd be waiting for her, ever so perseverant.

She was tired. She'd been desperately trying to sleep as little as possible, but her short naps didn't seem to be being enough. She shook her hair out of its ponytail, deciding to do what she always did when she was so tired she felt she might collapse inexorably on the floor.

She took her clothes off quickly once inside the bathroom, leaving them in a giant heap on the tile floor. The water felt burning on her skin, but she liked it that way.

She ran her fingers through her hair under the steady fire of the water, letting the water keep her awake. She briefly remembered her times during high school, college, and med school. She'd get so tired, the only thing that would keep her awake was a hot shower. Some days she'd have to take 2 or 3, spaced a few hours apart. She'd been the cleanest girl in her dorm.

_Stop it._ She was not, not going to take a stroll down Memory Lane. She was not. Nothing could be helped with the past, the _future_ was what mattered. The future was everything.

And then she was crying. She was crying, and her warm tears mixed and combined with the water shooting out like needles. She felt her breathing become uneven, carbon dioxide being released in short, fast bursts. _No, no, no! Stop it!_

_Nooooooooooooooooo._

_Please, please no._

_Daddy!_

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Burke made his way slowly into the apartment, tiredly removing his coat and hanging it on the hook, not even noticing the black jacket that was already there. He rubbed his temples with the first two fingers of each hand, his eyes closed as he made his way down the hallway. He stepped into the bedroom he shared with Cristina, smiling automatically as he stepped over an article of clothing she had left hazardously on the floor the night before. He changed into his pajamas in silence, barely able to keep his eyes open. He walked slowly into the bathroom, intending to wash his face.

There he paused, hearing the sound of the shower running and noticing the small heap of clothes in front of the sink.

"Oh," he said aloud. "Cristina? Sorry, I didn't realize you were home-"

He stopped talking, hearing a quiet sob, a heavy breath. "Cristina?" He gently nudged the curtain, trying to see if she was all right without coming off like a pervert.

The water was freezing, sharp needles of ice whipping down and stabbing at her. He looked at her face in silence for a moment, before reaching down to shut off the shower, then turning the faucet until all the running of the water ceased.

Cristina was shaking.

He looked around for her powder-blue bathrobe, but not seeing it, grabbed his dark navy one instead. It struck him that their bathrobes matched their scrubs.

He took a towel from the cupboard-like thing in the corner, wrapping it gently around Cristina's body. He wrapped his arms under hers, lifting her cleanly out of the bathtub. She wrapped her drenched arms around him, soaking his t-shirt, but he didn't notice. Her quiet sobs shook in his ears, breaking his heart.

Preston gently took hold of the towel, and slowly, silently began to dry off her soft body. He rubbed the towel sensitively over her body, as her soft sobs continued to shake him.

He finished drying her off, before gently wrapping his bathrobe around her, tying the loose belt around her tiny waist. "Come on," he whispered, speaking for the first time.

He led her slowly to the bedroom, lying her carefully down on the bed. Her crying had softened, and he crawled next to her, kissing her delicate shoulder once.

Her voice came out quiet and hoarse. "Burke, I'm not in the mood."

He shook his head against hers. "You think seeing you cry turns me on?"

He laid down next to her, gathering up her body and holding her close. "Please tell me," he whispered.

Her crying grew worse. _No, no, no._

"_No, no, no,_" she whispered.

He ran his fingers through her hair, hugging her tighter. "Cristina," he murmured.

"Please no_,"_ she murmured, shaking horribly. _"No._ No, no, no! It's okay that he didn't love me. He didn't love me. He didn't mean to hurt me. It's not what people who love do. He didn't hurt me. It didn't happen. None of it has to be real." Her crying was quiet like her whispers, but her breathing was loud and shallow.

Burke watched her, feeling an anger so large he was surprised he could hold it. There was a monster in him that roared back to life, as he looked at his broken down girlfriend. This was worse than when she'd cried in her hospital room. Then there'd been something pure about her tears, and now there was just pain. Preston's voice came out rough and hushed. "Who hurt you?" **_I Will Kill Him._**

Cristina's cries became loud and frantic. "No! No, no! It's not what people who love each other do!" She was almost screaming now. "Burke, he HURT her!"

Burke's breathing was as fast as Cristina's now, and with this, Cristina's tears almost stopped. She buried her head in his shoulder, covering them with a thick blanket. They laid like this for a long, long time, and no matter what Burke did, he couldn't get her to say anything else, except for an almost silent whisper deep into the night. "_I love you._"


	4. Chapter 4

_A Love That Will Never Grow Old_

Chapter four, by greyeyedgirl.

A/N: More reviewsfaster updates. :D Thanks for the ones I've gotten so far!

When Cristina was in high school, she had read a book called "Killing Mr. Griffin," by Lois Duncan. The book had told about a plan made by a few high school seniors to "kidnap," as a joke, their hated twelfth grade English teacher. Though in the book, Mr. Griffin had died due to an unknown heart condition, the kids involved had still set up a plan in order to not get caught. They'd enlisted the help of a goody-goody, Susan McConnell, who would act as the decoy to get Mr. Griffin where the others needed to be in order to gag him. Mr. Griffin never suspected _Susan,_ one of his favorite students, to be in on it. He trusted the sweet, book-smart 16-year-old.

Cristina had stopped reading this book right after the death of Mr. Griffin. The book evoked some terrible emotions in her, and shoving her way through them wasn't worth it, in her opinion.

Nine or ten years later, Cristina stood just inside the lobby of the apartment building she lived in, her iPod hooked to the belt loop on her jeans. Damien Rice played loudly.

A storm was coming. She watched the small claps of lightning from the clear glass door, seeing the wind blow the leaves on a small patch of trees.

Her mother had made her go to a therapist afterwards, but she'd stopped soon after. The 'doctor' hadn't seen the point in them continuing. Cristina refused to talk.

One of the things, the few things, that Dr. Holloway had gotten out of her was that she remembered things funny. Sometimes, when she was sleeping, mostly, she'd remember it how it really happened. From her _own_ point of view. Mostly, though, when the images, the terrible memories that haunted her, drifted their way into her mind, she remembered them as an Outsider, a fly on the wall, someone distant and unconnected to the surroundings around her.

She'd only been a toddler when her father had started molesting her.

Yet she could remember when it had started.

Her mother hadn't been home much. She'd be off with friends, oblivious to child crying, complete confidence existing in her stocky, handsome husband.

He'd given her a bath.

From her fly-on-the-wall perspective, Cristina heard herself giggling. Her father had let her hold the baby on her lap, and he'd been smiling at her. Then he'd done the bad thing.

Strangely, though, he hadn't laid a finger on little Ashley. His eyes had stayed locked on Cristina, right until the tears came.

Four months. For four months, he had hurt her, leaving her in chronic pain. Cristina hadn't told anyone. Her was her daddy, he loved her, she trusted him, and she didn't understand what was going on. He was her Susan McConnell.

Until That Night.

Cristina shivered, in sync with the rustling trees.

Bailey was back from maternity leave. It was strange to see her back in her light blue scrubs and white lab coat, her hand on her hips as she yelled at the interns that this was not a tea party, they were saving lives here!

"Has Burke forgave you for lying about the apartment?"

Cristina shot a Death Glare at Meredith, rushing down the hall as she attempted to clip back her hair at the same time. "Yes."

Meredith smiled. "How come?"

Cristina snickered to herself. "He is **Preston. Burke.**_"_

Meredith glanced at her. "Sorry?"

"I'm sorry, did Mr. Beattie decide to heal _himself?_"

The two girls jumped at the sound of Bailey's voice, before hurrying into the intracranial hytosis patient's room.

It was just past midnight, and the storm was raging outside, unbeknownst to the doctors and patients within. Cristina laid by herself on a small cot in the on-call room, thinking devious thoughts about her and Burke. She slowly allowed herself to resect old memories, these ones much less malignant than the ones that had been weighing down on her previously. _These_ ones had happy endings.

She had just took a shower after scrubbing out of Shepherd's Tucker Jones surgery. Her movements were frantic and worried as she thought of her boyfriend and her best friend stuck in a room with the bomb. She'd taken a seat on a bench in the locker room, her nails clawing delicately into her soft skin. She was the only one there.

Then the door had opened. Burke looked exhausted, there was sweat on his face and his arms looked dusty. Her head had shot up when he entered the room, and her breath had caught at the sight of him, alive. _Safe._

He took a seat next to her. She watched him with glimmering eyes.

"The bomb went off."

Cristina couldn't breathe.

"Dr. Grey is being examined by Dr. Stevens. She seems to have only minor injuries. She's pretty covered in grime and blood, though."

Cristina kept her gaze locked. Burke lowered his voice. "It got the bomb squad guy."

Cristina shook, feeling her eyes fill as she leaned into Burke. He wrapped his arms around her, softly rubbing her hair. "It's all right," he whispered smoothly.

Cristina kissed his cheek. His lips caught hers, and the kiss was deep and full of passion. Neither one of them pulled away.

The door opened with a bang. Cristina and Burke sprung apart, and Cristina gasped at the sight of Meredith, being led carefully by Izzie into the locker room. "Sir," Izzie said weakly to Burke, pulling Meredith forward, "They need you downstairs, the chief has paperwork-Dr. Shepherd is waiting-"

Burke nodded, as Cristina started to stand up, moving towards Meredith. Burke put his hand on Cristina's arm, stopping her. Her put his head just a few inches from hers. "I'll see you at home."

Cristina squirmed uncomfortably. Burke leaned closer, kissing her softly, and Cristina moved forward to help Izzie and Meredith, as Preston left the room to accompany Dr. Shepherd.

Since then, there was a bond that had formed between Burke and Cristina, even stronger than what they'd felt before. They didn't need to say it out loud.They loved each other, and both of them knew it. The looks they exchanged while laying in bed held more significance, the kisses had more depth.

The door to the on-call room opened, silently. Cristina's eyes were closed.

"Hey."

Cristina sat up. "Hey."

Burke laid next to her on the cramped cot, kissing her cheek. "Wanna talk about it?"

Cristina rested her head in the small place next to his neck between his head and shoulders. "No."

He turned his head, kissing her. "Cristina."

"It was a long time ago. It doesn't matter anymore." Cristina rolled over on the cot, so she was laying on top of Burke. The tiny area suddenly seemed a lot more comfortable.

"Of course it doe-" He was broken off by her kisses. His response was soft at first, then eager. Her hands slid up his shirt, carefully feeling each dip and bulge of her boyfriend's muscles. Burke's voice drifted off, and nothing more was said about the Bad Thing or the nightmares.


	5. Chapter 5

**A LOVE THAT WILL NEVER GROW OLD**

By greyeyedgirl 5!11

A/N: There's going to be at least one major reference from the first or second chapter coming up soon, so I recommend re-reading the first few chapters before reading this. :D Don't worry. I promise it won't be too painful. BTW, you better love me, I'm skipping out on studying for my math test in order to write this. Oh, and I'm not doing an essay that was due...uh...a week ago. :D

Disclaimer: As "Asphalt Angel," said in "Bonding," if I owned GA, Burke and Shepherd would not be allowed to wear shirts.

Feedback: Is my crack. Support my habit?

**Cristina Yang, MD**

117 E. Leroy, Apt. 307

Seattle, Washington, 98103

Preston Burke looked at the package in some trepidation, wondering who on earth is could be from. There was no return address, nothing written on the envelope except Cristina's name and address, which was written in curved, calligraphic penmanship. He had no idea who had mailed this to his girlfriend. He couldn't think of anyone Cristina would associate with that sealed their envelopes with smiley-face stickers.

He picked up the thing that he had found in their mailbox about half an hour ago. A medium sized box, plain cardboard, with a large orangeish-tan envelope taped to the top. Several stamps loitered stubbornly on the package.

Curiosity overtook him, and he shook the box lightly. He forced himself to put it down. What was he going to do next, start bending the envelopes her mail came in directly under the light so he could read what was written on the document within?

It was at that moment that the door swung open with a note of finality. Cristina shook her hair around as she entered, splattering drops from the rain onto the side of the kitchen counter.

"Hey," she said tiredly, slipping off her coat and kissing him lightly on the cheek. He barely noticed her dumping her jacket on the counter, instead of the hook on the wall he'd cleared specifically for her.

"You got mail." He tried to say it casually, like it was nothing more than it ever was, a cell phone bill, perhaps, or a free AOL CD.

Cristina glanced at him and the package, before laughing and seizing it. "Who's it from?" Burke asked nonchalantly.

Cristina sat next to him behind the kitchen counter. "My-do you have a VCR?"

Burke stared at her silently for a few moments. "Yes, we do." He delayed once again. "Your what?" Burke asked.

Cristina whipped open the envelope quickly, taking out a tape. She glanced up. "Oh, you don't know, do you?"

Burke sat down at one of the stools near the kitchen counter. "Know what?"

"I have a little sister. Ashley. From my dad." She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear absentmindedly, fingering the tape. "She's 13. Then Logan is 4, and Jordan is 6. Jordan's a girl."

Burke watched her curiously. "I did _not _know that."

Cristina shot him a small smile. Burke got up, following her into the living room. Cristina was quiet as she fiddled with the cords on the VCR. She hooked in the red, white, and yellow cords, pushing in the tape. An image lit up the screen.

"Cristina," Burke said. Cristina looked up at him, hitting "STOP" on the VCR. "What's up?"

Burke stared. "We can't just forget about what happened."

Cristina didn't move.

Burke took a few steps closer, setting his hands on her arms. "It's okay," he whispered. "No one's going to hurt you again. Just tell me who did it to you. I'll make it all okay again." He brought his lips to her forehead.

Cristina's breathing was harsh. "No!" She tried to pull away.

"Cristina!"

"No!" Her face transformed, tears burning down her face. Burke held her arms firmly, stunned by her sudden transformation. "Cristina...it's all right..." His whisper was very, very quiet in the apartment. He tried to pull her closer.

Cristina pulled away. She attempted to shove past him, heading for the door, her head down and tears streaming down her face.

"Cristina!" Burke did not want to let her go.

She was already gone.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I'm sorry."

Burke looked up from his spot at the breakfast table. He put his head back down.

Cristina sat down next to him. "You don't understand."

Burke looked up again, this time his eyes watching Cristina's carefully. "You won't let me."

Cristina looked down at the table too. "I've made a lot of mistakes."

Burke kept his eyes on her.

Cristina continued, her voice uncharacteristically soft and quiet. "My dad. Losing the baby."

Burke frowned, his breathing shallow. "That wasn't your fault!"

"October sixteenth."

Burke looked down. "Yes."

Cristina's voice got louder, whimpering. "It was my fault!"

Burke got up, walking over and taking her into his arms. "Shhhh," he said softly. "It's okay."

"I lost the baby on your birthday!"

Burke kissed the side of her forehead, his lips gentle. "We're gonna have more."

Cristina's breathing got quiet.

"I love you, Cristina."

There was a long, quiet pause. "I love you, too."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"The pie people are eating my feet."

Meredith paused, shooting a glance at the 13 or 14-year-old girl standing near her in the elevator, talking into a cell phone. The girl giggled. "Hold on, I'm getting another call." She pushed a button on her cell phone. "Hello? Maddi, hi! Yeah, I know. Did you really? I swear to God, you should have _seen_ me and Jessica and Caitlin and Brooke trying to do cartwheels in gym. That horrible old bat kept telling us what we were doing wrong, and sticking her hands on us to make us do it right, only we just kept floppin' over. But Jessica kept talking to me about how she'd broken her wrist 4 different times trying to do cartwheels, and I TOLD Mrs. Matton, I'm very particular about where I stick my bones." She paused, listening. "I asked her if she'd ever heard of Boy in a Plastic Bubble."

Meredith sighed, waiting for the door to open.

It all happened very fast. Meredith heard a little moan and saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned, panicked. The girl was laying on the ground.

The elevator _bing_ed open.

"Oh my god! Somebody get a gurney!" Meredith yelled to a passing nurse, quickly hitting the "STOP" button on the elevator. A team of nurses with a gurney ran forward, followed by Dr. Burke and Cristina. The group of them hoisted the young girl up, her dark hair falling over her pretty face. Meredith heard Cristina give a little gasp.

"Cristina? Are you all right?" Meredith looked at her friend, concerned.

Cristina's face was white. She didn't say anything for a moment. The little girl's eyes fluttered open, her face weak with pain. "Cristina..." She moaned, looking right at Dr. Yang.

Meredith looked at Cristina and frowned. "You know her?"

Cristina looked like she was having trouble breathing. "She's my sister."

A/n: It's two o'clock in the morning, and I'm off to write chapter 6. I am going to fail my math test tomorrow. Well. I don't fail math tests. But I could very possibly get one or two wrong! THAT is my dedication to you guys. Cuz I love math. Sometimes.


	6. Chapter 6

**A Love That Will Never Grow Old**

Chapter 6!

Chapter Title: **"Insane"**

A/N: I know I said I was going to write this chapter right after I got done with chapter 5. To make a long story short...I lied. To make a long story longer, I shall just say that I wrote Down for Love chapter 9 instead. Then I studied for my math test. And I got a 95, which is awesome:D I love math. Except not always. Plus I love writing soooo much more. Please don't yell if this chapter sucks. I was getting lots of private messages/email to write more, so I scrambled to finish those last 2, which I know suck. But I know exactly where my story is going! So shut up and read, please. : ) Except if you LIKE it, write lots of nice things at the end. Thank you. (Sorry, I'm cranky right now. My mother was tickin' me off. :D)

This chapter is dedicated to coldqueen, because I am happy to have another C/B writer here. Plus, she gave me a shoutout in chapter 4 of Moody Monday, which is flippin' awesome! If she happens to read this, I want her to know I'm listening to DR's "Insane" right now, and it's a YAYYYY awesome song. :P As you can see from the chapter title! Okay, now ON to the story! ;)

by **greyeyedgirl**

_Go. Run. Faster! **Shut up!** _Cristina ran, breathing hard, slamming and locking the door to the on-call room so Burke couldn't come in after her. She could hear him, just outside the door, waiting patiently for her to let him in.

It was chaos, it was...pandemonium. And all of it was happening right inside Cristina's body. The thoughts were racing through her mind, reminding her of angry flies, buzzing hurriedly around a dead animal on the side of the road. She really, really wanted to throw something.

The railings on the bunkbed were metal, and she could see her reflection in the mirroring surfaces. The tears were so fast, so hot, she was surprised her face didn't catch on fire. She was slowly slowing down, her body was calming, her legs weren't fidgeting anymore.

Cristina sat down on the bottom bunk in the on-call room, her hair falling loosely around her face, the ponytail long abandoned. There was still an andrenaline pumping through her body, making her want to run, but her mind was calm.

Ashley was going to be fine. Dr. Shepherd was examining her now, and Meredith was waiting for Ashley's CT results. Cristina still wasn't sure exactly what Ashley was doing here, fully across the country from where she lived, but she pushed her curiousity firmly away.

This was much too much. She didn't know what had reawakened her nightmares, wasn't aware why all this was coming back for her right now. And now Ashley was laying in a hospital bed in the other side of the building, and Cristina was crying in an on-call room while her boyfriend knocked gently on the door.

How had this happened to her? She was **Cristina Yang.** First in her class at Stanford Med, valedictorian of her high school class. She had worked so, so hard to get to this place, to be able to walk into Seattle Grace Hospital every morning. Every day of high school had sucked, every time she had had to pull herself out of bed she had hated herself, but she had _done_ it. For 1,980 days, through high school, college, and med school, she had worked her ass off, and all of it only added up to not being able to escape it. No matter what she did, Cristina Yang could never escape her past.

Cristina stood up, her legs scrambling and shaking, and forced her body to hold still as she stared down at her reflection in the bed railings. Cristina had always thought, oddly, privately, of course, that she looked prettier when she cried. The color escaping from her body, she was darker, tinges of red glittering on her bone structure. And her eyes...her patient had told her she had nice eyes. She looked down into her reflection and pondered this, the tears still ranting fast and hard. They were glowing a little, a dark light shining incandescently. Yes. Cristina Yang was more beautiful when she cried. Beauty, that which we all strive so greatly to achieve, was a delicate flower against her face, and it struck Cristina that beauty was so much more powerful when it came from sadness. But was beauty really dark? Didn't those that seem lit from within, shining with the brightness of their lives, seem full of beauty too? What _was_ beauty? How could you distinguish it? And how could you achieve something if you were not sure what it was?

In her tired, scared, pained state Cristina was full of bumbling psychochatter. She shook her head fast, back on the bed, her hair a metaphor for the pain rattling inside her.

_Buck up, Cristina._ Cristina nodded along, agreeing with her thoughts. She wiped her tears away, pulling her hair back as she removed the large silver clip from the pocket of her scrubs.

Cristina opened the door and began to step out, but stopped abruptly when she saw Burke leaning against the wall just outside the room, hunched over to the point of almost sitting, a tired, stoic look on his face. He didn't seem to hear the door to the on-call room open, and Cristina watched him for a moment, carefully examining each deep dimple and curve in the face she loved so much. The product of her question was answered. There was no doubt in her mind what beauty was, because as she looked down at Preston's poetic composure, it was looking her in the face. Cristina moved a step closer to him, and he opened his eyes, looking up at her.

He was up in a flash, but just his movements were graceful, there was a sense of agileness in the way he jumped quickly to his feet, his eyes locked on her. "Do you-" He cleared his throat. "How are you?"

She knew he was noting the color in her cheeks, and that it worried him. "Let's go check on her, okay?"

He led the way to the hospital room occupied by Ashley and Doctor Shepherd, holding the door and letting Cristina pass through first.

Ashley was sitting up in bed. "Hey!" She said happily to Cristina. "My god, it's so boring here, I swear. Mr. McPheirson-" She started laughing, her face twinkling pink. "Mr. McPheirson nearly had a heart attack, he's the chaperone, a couple kids in my Youth in Government progam at school were supposed to come here for this thing, but Emma Spader caught mono, and we needed four reps from my school, so Mr. McPheirson picked me to come instead." She grinned at Cristina. "I figured as long as I was in town, I'd see you, but I-eh-forgot- to tell Mr. McP I was leaving, so..." She smiled charmingly.

Derek winked at Ashley as he sent her an amused grin. "Can't forget things like that."

The door to the room opened suddenly once again, and Meredith walked in, pausing to notice the expressions on everyone's faces. "We have the labs back," she told Derek. "Ashley's MRI showed that their is some bruising of the brain, a hemorrhage near her cerebellium below the left side." She glanced at Ashley. "Did you hit you head recently?"

Ashley looked stricken. "I fell down the stairs..." Her voice drifted off hesitantly. Derek frowned slightly. He took in Dr. Yang's face, asking the interns, "And this is a sign off...?" He looked at Dr. Yang expectantly.

"Succingtinoctic Neuroitis." It was Meredith who spoke. Cristina was staring vaguely at the wall. Burke looked at her, concerned.

Derek stared at Cristina's expressionless face. "So we should?"

"Preform a sincto-neuroctic resection and subdyrral in order to stop the bleeding. The rest should heal on its own, providing antibiotics and severe bedrest."

"You have to do surgery?" Ashley stared up at Dr. Shepherd. Derek smiled down at her. "I'm afraid so. But we can start prepping you now, and with proper rest you should be back at school within the next month."

"Month?" Ashley looked stricken. "Just because I bumped my head?"

Derek smiled at her. "It was more than a bump. And we're talking highly dangerous, invasive brain surgery." He continued. "We've had your parents on the phone, they're flying in right now, they've given approval for-"

"Dad's coming?" Cristina had snapped back to attention, and she had unsteadily taken a step backwards towards the door. Ashley was watching her.

"Yes," Derek said absently, looking down at the charts Meredith had handed him. "They should be here in a couple of hours." He closed the chart with a snap. "Well, what do you say, Dr. Grey? Ready to get back to work?"

Meredith smiled weakly back at him.


	7. Chapter 7

**A Love That Will Never Grow Old**

by greyeyedgirl

chapter 7 (wow, this story's going fast!)

a/n: Should be doing my economics homework. Somehow, this is more tempting. Remember, me like-y you review-y. Post how awesome you think I am, and I shall write lots of lovely chapters and stories, so YOU can avoiding doing YOUR homework too:D grins and throws confetti in the air. Hugs to everybodys.

**Foxy005** thanks, I hope you like this chapter. Cristina's sis isn't gone yet: )

**lukeandlorealilove** lol I know, I think I'm getting better w/my cliffhangers. Yayyyy.

**Reader1148** lol thank you.

**Coldqueen ** Yes, you loving D.R. made ME love D.R. and now... : ), thanks for reviewing, I love your stories. : )

**D0RKY GiiiRL:** smile Thanks Lexi, will do. I'll talk to you later on Jade! Check it out, I made some new icons on there: ) This chapter's dedicated to you:D

His girlfriend was eluding, eschewing, and most of all evasive. He watched her silently as she stood, her back to him, in the kitchen of their apartment, her hands fiddling with the coffee maker.

"You should be in bed," he said. She turned around, her eyes wide for a moment, before giving off a rough-sounding cough. "Yeah," she said throatily. "I'm going back right now. Just...thirsty, that's all."

He walked forward, kissing her forehead. "There's juice in the fridge, that should help your throat. I'll pick you up some antibiotics on the way home from work, 'kay?" He turned from her for a moment, and Cristina brought her hands up quickly to her face to lick them fervently. Preston turned back to her, and she smiled at him, a wide, weak-looking smile. "You look a little pale."

Cristina did the cough again. "Yeah," she said, his voice delicately soft. "I feel a little clammy, too."

Burke took her hands, falling perfectly into the plan. "Oooh. You _are_ clammy."

Cristina managed a weak smile.

Burke leaned forward quickly to kiss her cheek. "Well, there's stuff in the fridge, have whatever you want, I'll try to be home soon." He rubbed his fingers absent-mindedly through her hair, looking worriedly into her eyes.

Cristina let off a light laugh. "Burke! It's not big deal, just a virus." She smiled up at him, but her eyes gave everything away.

Burke squinted at her for a moment, but smiled, kissing her again, this time on her forehead. "Take care of yourself. I'll see you soon. I'll call you," he added as an afterthought. She smiled benignly back at him, and he slid through the door to the hallway, coffee in hand. "I love you," he called back to her over his shoulder, closing the door behind him.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Ashley sat in her hospital bed, restlessly fidgeting, her feet jumping restively against the scratchy sheet.

Derek strolled in quickly, his hair flopping down just slightly over his forehead. "Morning, Ashley," he said, smiling at her.

She grinned back, her hair jumping as she bounced lightly on the bed. "Morning. What's up?"

"Well, your parents should be back in here any minute, I told them they should go get some coffee right after I talked to them. Long night." He winked at her.

"Yeah. Long night." Her voice had a slight echoing quality, but her smile was sincere enough. Derek frowned suddenly, looking down at the skinny leg revealed by Ashley's hospital gown. "Is that from your fall?"

"What?" Ashley attempted to bend down to see what he was talking about, but stopped when her IV shook.

"You're bruised." Derek placed his fingers lightly on a large spot on her leg.

"Oh. Yeah. It's from the fall. I landed on one of Jordan's toys, it was laying on the floor at the foot of the stairs. Jordan's my sister."

Derek smiled lightly at her, but his eyes were squinted a bit. He forced his smile to look brighter. "Oh, I forgot to mention. We had to adjust your meds a bit, so it won't interfere with what medication you were already on. Ritalin, right?"

Ashley looked up, the smile faltering for the first time. "Yeah," she said. "For my ADHD."

Derek smiled at her, taking in her expression. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, Ashley."

Ashley's voice was quiet. "I was only diagnosed last year. It was Hell."

Derek was prevented from replying by the opening of the door just behind him. A short man came in, with short hair that curled wildly just like his daughters', a small boy in his arms. A pale looking woman came in after him, carrying a small girl with long curls. "Ashley!" She exclaimed.

"Hey, Mom."

"We've been so worried about you," Mr. Reynolds said, moving closer to his middle daughter. "But Dr. Shepherd said you'd be okay?" He trailed off inquisitively.

"With the surgery and proper antibiotics, Ashley should be fine." Derek smiled at all of them.

"I'm so glad. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to my little girl." Mrs. Reynolds moved to pat Ashley's hair, but Ashley moved away. "Why didn't you say anything when you fell?"

Ashley shrugged. "It was no big deal. I just tripped. I trip all the time."

Mrs. Reynolds made a gasping noise like a sob, and went to squeeze Ashley's hand. Ashley quickly moved her hands out of the way, making it seem accidental, grabbing for the book on the small table right beside her bed.

Derek watched Ashley questioningly, as Mr. Reynolds took Jordan from his wife and gave her a smile.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Preston Burke stood inside the on-call room, pacing, indecisive. He hated being indecisive. He wanted answers, he wanted them _now!_

He was worried about his girlfriend, and there was nothing he could do to make her open up to him. He ran his hands over his hair distractedly, lost in his own thoughts. Cristina had battled pregnancy pains and a horrible miscarriage, a painful surgery and a stress-filled recovery, but she had still strolled into the third-floor locker room at 5:15 every morning. And now, a virus, this little virus, was making her stay home?

She _had_ looked sick, he reasoned. Her face was pale, her voice quiet, her hands clammy. The hands were what shook him. Only sick people felt like that.

He threw himself down on the small cot in the corner, burying his head in his hands. People did not start bawling in the shower for no reasons, nor did they have horrible nightmares that made them tremble and shake. Something was going on, and he wanted to know what. She was his girlfriend, goddammit, and he loved her. Why couldn't she just let him?

xXxXxXxXxXx

They called them shrinks for a reason, Cristina decided. Well. Everything had a reason, but this one had been staring at her straight in the face. They called them shrinks, because the 'doctor' in question would stare at you obliteringly as you rambled on, analyzing your feelings like they were something you could analyze, capture a precedent for, explain explicitly in Bic and white.

Then, as they were staring at you, feeling superior just like she did when she stared down at a patient, you would feel their vibrations of cockiness, making you protestant and more importantly, about three inches tall. They attempted to shrink you bad feelings, to squash them, but really they blew them up like a dangerous balloon, only shriveling the small person inside the body, making the thoughts confused and restless.

Damn psychiatrist. She had hated him. _Dr. Holloway._

He had tried to make her open up, which with Cristina Yang was _always_ a bad idea. He'd wanted her to remember what had happened, and out of all the help that small girl had needed, remembering was the one thing that was _not _on the list.

Damn psychiatrist! Damn father.

Damn coffee.

There was her safenet. Burke and his damn coffee.

Yet it had been with him that had brought it all up again. She had finally been starting to minutely relax, and it had all sprung up on her like a volcano erupting, spewing hot lava all over the place, causing only pain and destruction. Nothing good could result out of a volcano eruption, could it? It even destroyed the little things, the small lives growing solemnly down the mountains.

She wanted to kill her damn father, destroying what small self she'd had at two, and more importantly, making her miss work.

Goddamn him.

She threw a book across the room. It was Burke's copy, an immaculate copy of "Lord of the Flies." What was Burke doing with _Lord of the Flies_, anyway? What was he, in ninth grade?

And now she was taking her frustrations out on her boyfriend. She rolled off the couch, hunching over towards the book, and cramming it back into its place on the bookshelf. She knocked Burke's copy of _A Tale of Two Cities_ hazardly onto the floor. There was something oddly satisfying about that, so she did it again, this time with _A Christmas Carol._

Burke was going to be annoyed when he got home.

Cristina groaned loudly to herself, slouching back over to the couch and hiding her head under the blanket. She shrieked loudly, throwing the blanket off of her. Burke's couch now smelled like George.

Author's note: (stop whining, you know you love them). I finished this chapter right after "What Did I Do To Deserve This?" aired, so I had to incorporate Burke and Cristina's new...eh...roommate...into the story. :P Anyway, it seems I have taken a break from studying. Woahhhh, wait. Does it count as a break if you don't actually start it?

Fine. So, I had a _delay_ in my studying. So now I shall have to go do my economics homework, because I have to leave in 3 hours.

Pshhhh. Who am I kidding. I'm going to write chapter 8. :D


	8. Chapter 8

**A Love That Will Never Grow Old**

Chapter 8-yayyyyyyyyy me.

A/n: It's 3:47 in the morning, and I HAVE to stop writing at 6:30 so I can make my coffee, shove my freshly-laundered gym clothes in my bag, and brush my teeth again, before I leave at 6:50 for school. I still have to do four pages of Economics homework, not counting actually reading the chapter.

Wheeeeeee! It's okay. I sort of _like_ avoiding my homework (which I've decided I do to an almost pathological degree). It freaks me out when I walk into the classroom, and I guess I like the little high I get. LOL, I should mention Civics&Economics is my first class.

Something is seriously wrong with me.

But on to the story.

grins Look up I said the word seriously! Go GA!

Okay. I'll stop now. :D

Does anyone else write such long author's notes?

By greyeyedgirl! 3:55 now.

"Dr. Burke said you're sick?"

Cristina looked up from her spot sprawled in the chair, her legs up on its arm, and a twizzler hanging from her teeth. "I am," she informed George.

"Wow. I-I don't know if I could do it, lie to my boss _and_ boyfriend." George laughed a little as he said it.

"Ohmigod, look!" Cristina pointed to just behind George, and when he turned, she quickly licked her hands again. George turned back to her, confused. "See?" Cristina said, offering him her hands. "I'm all clammy."

George stared down at her. "Did you just lick your hands?"

They were interrupted by the sound of the door opening and a jingling of keys. Cristina swallowed the rest of the twizzler whole.

Burke walked into the living room, examining her face cautiously. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine. Much better." She smiled up at him, doing her sick-eyes. He reached for her hands. "You're still clammy."

George made a breathing noise in his throat. "I...I'm going to go to the bathroom."

Burke leaned down at her, pushing a few stray strands of hair out of her face. "You're pretty pale."

_You'd be pale too if every time you took a nap you remembered your father molesting you._ Cristina shook her head violently. She was not going to remember that. She was not going to remember Ashley.

Burke leaned down once again, kissing her forehead. "I checked in for you. Ashley's surgery is in an hour and a half."

Cristina straightened herself so she was sitting upright in the chair. "Is my dad there?"

"Yes. With his wife and your little brother and sister, I believe."

Cristina pushed her hair backwards over her head with her hand. It settled firmly just behind her ears. "Do you think-would you take me to watch the surgery? Like, you know...from the Observation Deck?"

Burke examined her face closely. "I thought you weren't feeling well?"

Cristina looked back at him, her eyes hooking on his deep brown eyes. "I'm not." _Well, it's not a **lie.**_

Burke kept his eyes locked on her. "Sure."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Cristina didn't even bother removing her coat as she settled herself down on the bench, Burke sitting next to her and wrapping his arm loosely around her waist. He pulled her head onto his shoulder.

Dr. Shepherd had just entered the O.R. There was a team of surgeons and nurses surrounding her little sister, with the anesthesiologist sitting to one side. She knew if she pressed her nose to the glass, she would just be able to glimpse Ashley's face. She stayed where she was.

"Hey." Burke kissed the side of her head, reassuringly. He slipped his jacket onto the side of her shoulder, bringing her closer to him. With a jolt she realized she'd been shivering. "It's okay," he murmured lowly. None of the surrounding doctors in the viewing room seemed to notice. They were in their own world, Cristina, Burke, and Ashley, with Dr. Shepherd forced to take landing on a planet he knew nothing about. It was okay, though. He was a good pilot, and he knew how to land, refraining from damage.

xXxXxXxXxXx

A world away in thoughts, but only yards in reality, Ashley lay in a deep sleep as Dr. Shepherd slowly removed her skullcap. She drifted away towards a dream she wouldn't be able to remember, the anesthesia swirling around her like mist. None of the Uglies, the Bad Things, the Beasties, were following her, and she got to play with all the little girls like she wanted to. She could hear one of them giggle in her hazy grey world, coming near her dressed in old-fashioned clothes. "Hi." The young'un said, smiling shyly. "Wanna play?"

"Yeah," said Ashley, following and laughing. "Let's play!"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Cristina shook and rolled over in her sleep, flipping back and forth on the bed, her face screwed into a frown. Dr. Burke woke with a start, opening his eyes to look down at her. She shook restlessly, her tired body turning left and right. "Cristina," he whispered. "Cristina!"

Her whole body rolled violently, her hair twitching on the dark pillow. "Noooooooo." Her moan was so pained, her statement was almost indistinguishable. "No, no, no." Her voice came out in little bursts of pain, her eyes clenched tightly shut, lost in a world of anguish and grief. A nightmare within the nightmare.

"Cristina," Burke said worriedly. "Hey, it's okay, wake up!" He shook the side of her shoulder lightly, staring down at the transformation in her face.

He gently rubbed her hands in his, murmuring reassurances in her hear. She awoke with a start, groaning, tears filling and soaking the pillows. Her hair became messy as her head shook, her face reddening into the familiar beauty. Burke tried frantically to contain her, to stop her cries, but it was to no avail. Then suddenly, as if actually awakening, Cristina seemed to really notice he was there, and her sobs lightened, her breathing erupting harshly. She sat up, still shaking violently, and Burke sat up with her, taking her vibrating body into his arms. "It's okay," he murmured. "You can tell me, it's okay, I'll take care of you, I love you."

_"No,"_ Cristina's voice came out in one that was not her own, a lifetime of horror and not being able to escape her past erupting in one final blow, which flew over her and attempted to crush her right into herself.

Cristina spoke again, and once again it was not her voice that escaped, or rather it was hers, but it was raspy and eerie, all in a few syllables. _"It's not what people who love each other do,"_ she whispered.

"What?" Burke looked genuinely confused, and pressed his head closer to hers to ear. He sat up quickly, staring at her with a look of shock, that is to say, one who's heard something so incredible, so horrible, and holding so much power, they simply cannot react. "What did he do to you?" He heard himself whisper, his voice a quiet reminder in the dark of what was real, just a contrast to the sound of Cristina's, and such a contrast to her words.

Cristina stared up at him, her eyes wide. "There was so much blood, Burke."

He stared at her, a loss for words.

Cristina's throat seemed to close up on her. "A lot."

He squeezed her hand so tight he thought he might hurt her, staring at her face with a dawning expression, a new realization of exactly what had occurred in Cristina's life. "Will you-can you talk about it?"

Cristina shook a little, Burke wrapped his arms around her and tightened his grip, but Cristina gave out a little nod.

"You don't have to," Burke whispered, tipping his head so just his lips brushed the side of her ear. "If you don't want to." His lips parted and reclosed, kissing her lightly, knowing with a strange feeling of satisfaction he was making her feel better. "But," he whispered, "I think if you don't, this will only continue to tear you up inside." His quiet voice sounded hoarse to his own ears, he could feel her collapsing into him at the familiar sound, one packed with so much love and devotion, caring with protection.

She was shaking very hard against his body, he couldn't seem to hold her hard enough, she was wrapping her arms around him and bringing him closer. "It's okay," she whispered softly, her voice trapped with soft, painful cries, unsteady in sound but its opposite in sanity. "I want to tell you everything."

xXxXxXxXxXx

And...we have an ending! (JUST FOR THIS CHAPTER, OF COURSE! This fic is nowhere neeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr done. :D) Yay me, it's only 5 in the morning, I'm going to read the chapter I need for my economics homework, then get busy. (Haha, don't you love my charming sarcasm?) Give me lots of nice review, because you know my fic is like candy. Non-fat, yummy-tasting, chocolate-that-won't-kill-your-dog. Pshhhhh, you know you love me. : )


	9. Chapter 9

**A Love That Will Never Grow Old**

Chapter Nine, by greyeyedgirl chapter nine already! Well, this one is dedicated to prestinaluvr, because I just read her Cristina/Burke's Valentine's Day story and it rocked my socks. I have economics homework AGAIN, but that's just too bad, isn't it:P

There was an odd fog, a white mist, jumping and swirling and lifting Cristina into the air. Her mind clouded over, and memories resurfaced, wonderful ones and terrible ones, ones that made her soul light up, and ones that caused her to die a little inside.

Burke was holding her close, therefore making pleasant memories predominant. The reminiscence came back almost bittersweet, and she felt herself surrender to it. Times of love between them, the look in his eyes when he caught her glance, the feeling that'd erupted in a result of their first kiss.

_There had been a chemistry between them, Cristina had felt it impending and it had startled her. She'd felt attraction before this, but nothing...nothing like..._

_The first time it had really crashed into her was when they'd been working with Liz. Cristina had gotten a Feeling, an odd feeling, indescribable and unfamiliar, when he'd walk into a room behind her. Her body had yearned for something, her muscles aching to collapse. For some reason she'd wanted to fall right into him, but she had the feeling she'd crashed instead._

_And then...when she'd walked into that on-call room..._

_He had been exhausted, his enervation evident in his weary face and the sluggish movements, still eloquent in Burke's simple and uncanny advent as the piece of poetry in motion._

_He'd looked up at her when she came in, not expecting to see her there, but not angry about it. He'd known she'd come eventually._

_She hadn't expected to see him like that. She had wanted to say something to him, she'd wanted there to be the cause-and-effect action that she understood and incorporated with everyday life. They had been looking at each other, feeling what they were feeling, and now she knew something was going to result from it._

_She hadn't expected this. The way he was standing there, his posture full of grace, captivating her. The actual sight of his face had thrown her, she had the slightly infuriating habit of forgetting what he did to her until she was actually realistically staring into his large dark eyes. And there he was...staring right at her...his shirt pulled off to reveal the chest that had plagued her fantasies for the last several weeks. She couldn't be doing this._

_Ohhhhhh, she couldn't not._

_She felt her hand on the doorknob, heard the tiniest of noises as the lock clicked in place._

_A million phrases existed in her mind, but she couldn't seem to read any of the thoughts etched so carelessly into its depths. A random uttering came out, something she hadn't planned beforehand, but once she said it, it seemed like as good a thing to say as any._

"Thanks for the coffee."

_He had looked at her when she said that. There was an understanding in his eyes, he knew exactly what she was saying, his mind easily deciphering the question hidden in her words. His hands seemed to grip even more firmly on the upper-bunk. He turned his head back towards her, his eyes surveying her slowly, wanting to double-check._

_She slowly made herself turn her head, suddenly uncomfortable, fully aware of what she was doing. She moved her hands behind her back, her fingers feeling the sudden and powerful urge to twitch uncontrollably, the flailing legs of a spider who's life was about to end._

_He was moving towards her so fast she didn't have time to process it, his hand almost roughly tipping her head upward towards him. No, it wasn't rough...There was a gentleness, too..._

_His other hand found her face, and her body screamed at the feeling of their first contact. Preston Burke had never touched her before, and the feeling was intoxicating._

_Then his lips were on hers, pushing, everything happening so fast it would have made Cristina's head spin if she'd still been able to think. The second his lips touched hers something had exploded inside her, his mouth felt on fire, which didn't make sense because it was cooling, too. The collision of his lips against hers came soft at first, and she surrendered to it, her own lips pushing lightly towards the contact. Still moving with the speed of an agile fox, Burke's lips pushed slightly harder, and half a second after their lips first met Cristina's arms wrapped quickly around his waist, pulling him as close to her as he could possibly go, the sudden feeling the ripple of his abs under his scrubs right against her stomach snatching away what little breath away she had left. Burke's kiss became more decisive, the tiny question in it evaporating as her tongue felt the light cleanliness of his teeth. Her mind raced as her body screamed, feeling the rushing and rapture, the exhilaration, of her and Burke's first kiss, full of so much more than just the immediate passion and lust. _

"Cristina..." Burke's whisper came out of the dark, his hand resting lightly on hers. He was mistaking her shaking for horror. "It's okay," he whispered, his voice a familiar anchor in all that had happened in the last few weeks.

"I'm fine. I wasn't thinking about that," she whispered, as he placed his chin on the top of her hair, holding her close.

The second she said it, she knew she had jinxed herself. Another memory came back, rivaling its predecessor in strength, and Cristina's shaking took on a different form.

"Cristina!" Burke's voice filled with panic, his tone was low, he had moved his head off her to try to look her in the eye.

Her shakes came out in tiny convulsions, and her head bent down to stare at the bedspread, it was her favorite one of Burke's, maroon-ish, and soft.

"Cris-..." Burke's whisper tapered off, watching the first tear escape quickly and slink boldly like a cat down her face. "Shhhh," he started to murmur, feeling a kind of desperation foreign to him as his thoughts rendered loudly on the desire to comfort his girlfriend.

"No," he murmured throatily. "Don't _shhh_. Tell me everything. I'll make it better, I promise," he whispered, his head bent close to Cristina's. "I'm going to protect you," he whispered.

Cristina shook violently, her body fidgeting again like it had in the on-call room after Ashley's collapse. "Happy," she murmured to herself. "Just try to be happy. Forget..."

Burke shook her gently, watching her in horror, forcing himself to push through to her. "Cristina," he whispered. "It's okay. _I'm going to make it better."_

Cristina's tears were louder now. "Noooo," she wailed softly, trying to stifle her sobs with her hand. Burke gently took her hand away, bringing her head into his chest and brushing his fingers lightly across her back shoulders.

She couldn't avoid it any longer. It was following her, grabbing at her, she could keep running through the forest if she wanted too, but the dangerous tree limbs and bushes were never going to stop scratching at her. She had to stop, face them, cut them down. She felt her lips separate, her vocal cords vibrate tenderly, slowly beginning to tell him everything.

"_My dad used to touch me."_

Burke froze, his fingers suddenly clenching, the monster in him growing once again.

"_It happened for a few months. Maybe four, or so...I can't remember...I was so little."_

Preston had never, in his entire life, had such an urge to vomit.

"_Then...one day...I was 2...he touched Ashley."_

Burke felt the sickness grow, but only for a split-second. He frowned. "Cristina...when you were two...Ashley wasn't..."

"_Not this Ashley. My other little sister. The one from Before."_

Burke could not move his body, each limb seemed separately stuck in a clenched position.

"_He touched her. Ashley. She was only...only...she was the baby..."_

Burke stared down at her, Cristina's face was stark-white, the tears somehow managing to dry out her skin. She was staring, blankly, across the room at the wall, her eyes focused and blinking. He felt a chill run up his spine, and he timidly tried to pull her closer, feeling a tear start to form up in his own eye, the gurgling feeling in his throat that meant there was a possibility he'd get sick.

"_He made me do it too. He took my hands...and-he was so rough...and he made me hurt her..."_

Burke's breathing couldn't find its rhythm, he looked down at Cristina, her eyes were oddly glazed, squinted, her lips parted gently, her breathing harsh.

"_Then he...he put himself inside her...Kind of, I mean...I was watching, I was trying to make him stop, I was so small...he was whispering...he used to whisper to me while he was...his face...there was no expression...my dad didn't show his emotions...and he kept whispering..."_

Burke's heartbeat pounded loudly in his ears, a memory resurfacing of him holding her on this bed, her crying. _It's not what people who love each other do._

As if reading his mind, Cristina whispered, almost to herself._ "Not okay...didn't love me...love me..."_ Her voice was trailing off incomprehensibly, she seemed lost in her own world and the hellish-inferno of the past. She suddenly stared at him, like coming awake, suddenly aware. She fell back into herself, the whispering continuing, the odd shortness of breath.

"_Blood."_

Burke felt himself shake.

"_It stained the sheets."_

Burke had to force himself to hold back the eruption in his throat. _Stop that!_ He had to be strong for her. He'd promised he would make it better.

"_I called...there was a phone...I pushed 911...Daddy didn't notice...he just heard me crying...then...he saw the blood...like he hadn't before...and sort of woke up...not...not...then..."_

"_And...started yelling...crying...he had blood all over him...I remember wondering...how...how she...she was so small, but had so much blood...then...I remember realizing she wasn't crying and I...I knew she wasn't okay...couldn't-couldn't be okay...and then...she'd never be okay."_

Burke stared into the eyes of the woman he loved, but she kept her gaze locked steadily on the wall.

"_The police came...But...he'd hit me first...broke something...bones...2. Right. It hurt. And then...they arrested him...one got sick...there was blood, and Ashley...asked me...about my mom...and then..."_

Cristina shuddered, staring. "My father was sentenced to 10 years in prison." Her voice shook at the word 'ten.' "Then he was out...started a new family...my mom divorced him right after it happened...that's why I don't have his last name...Reynolds...It was a..." She laughed awkwardly, and Burke winced slightly. "Messy divorce."

Burke stared at her.

Cristina's eyes stared at the wall again. _"He named her Ashley. Like he could _replace_ her. Like he _deserved_ to have her back..."_

Burke's eyes stayed rooted on her. He tried to find his voice. "His wife..." He said hoarsely. "His kids...the other ones...they just don't...care?" He'd never heard his voice sound like that. Maybe that was what happened when you didn't let go of what needed to come out. It was like poison.

Cristina stared the wall, her hair bounced slightly, and Burke's stomach flipped. He used to love watching her hair do that, that tiny elegant movement as she readjusted her head. It seemed odd to see it still do that now. Everything was different from how it'd been two weeks ago. Everything was different from how it'd been two hours ago...He shook inwardly, desperately pleading to reach out to his girlfriend. Nothing, he thought weakly, was ever going to be the same again.

Cristina laughed the odd laugh from before, and Burke felt the de ja vu of his spine trickling, his breathing catching loudly as she stared at his girlfriend, and for a moment he saw through the sudden wall Cristina had built up around herself, like a momentary crack.

Cristina's laugh continued quickly and quietly, but Burke heard the small shake in it. "I don't think they know."

The small laugh shook more and more, and slowly she continued to break, the tears rushing. Burke instantly reached out his arms, pulling her close into his embrace, kissing the side of her head, being able only to hold her for several long moments, as Cristina's cries, her true cries, came at last. He looked down at her tears, his heart naturally breaking, but decided this time, her sadness had her innocence back. Maybe, he thought to himself, she wasn't breaking. He was helping her to mend.

Author's note: Okay. So was it good? I think it was good. Gruesome. Yes. But hopefully I got some emotion out of ya, because I certainly got some out of myself. : ) Now, it's four in the morning, exactly, and I hate to say it, but I really don't think those economics worksheets are going to do themselves. BTW, this is Tuesday (officially, 4 AM, remember?) and I'll try to write the next chapter tonight and get it up tomorrow. Maybe no chapter 11 on Thurs, but Friday for sure. (LOL, probably just jinxed myself). Please review, hopefully I blew you away ( ) and you'll love me forever.

Woah. Think I need some coffee.

Review! Thanks! Oh, and don't worry, the gruesome, ew-what-is-this-rated stuff is basically over.


	10. Chapter 10

**A Love That Will Never Grow Old**

by greyeyedgirl

Chapter 10-"Stain"

Summary: It will take you like 5 minutes to read this. What's 5 minutes out of your life? Aren't you worth risking 5 minutes if the payoff is some Burke and Cristina goodness? (woahhhhhh, I'm tired, aren't I?)

A/n: Hiiiiiiii. Did you miss me? Sorry, I had to...erm...get some sleep for the past few nights, and THEN, my mom FINALLY got me the GA season 1 DVD, after searching 7 stores, she finally found it at Barnes and Noble. So, obviously, I had to rewatch all the episodes, then the pilot with both commentaries, and the deleted scenes, and...Well. Obviously, it took a while. But hey, no worries, my priorities haven't changed-I'm doing this before I've even _cracked open_ my math book. Wheeeeeeeee.

Now, read, review, love me forever. :D :P

A Love That Will Never Grow Old...chapter 10

The blood on the sheets caused a stain. That was what Cristina said.

Preston Burke had mixed feelings about stains. Sometimes he smiled, tolerably, when he saw one, just because he knew it'd be easy to erase. He liked the idea of being able to clean it. Preston liked to clean.

If he tried, though, to get a stain out, and couldn't, he hated them. He didn't like the idea of working and working, of scrubbing and scrubbing, with no result whatsoever. He didn't want to be...ineffectual.

Burke wanted control of everything in his life, because somehow, he just knew, if he lost control, the results would be catastrophic.

As it turned out, most two-year-olds had an amazing amount of control in their lives. If they didn't want broccoli for dinner, they cried, and McDonalds it was. They wanted a toy, they threw a tantrum in the store aisle, and it was theirs. At two-years-old, Cristina had had _no_ control over her life, and because of this, Burke grieved for her.

Two-year-olds cried for what they wanted. Cristina had cried and cried and cried, and Burke had been able to do nothing for her.

Burke shuddered. He was a surgeon. He was a Cutter, he was a Healer, he was a Cleaner.

He knew how hard it would have been to get a blood stain out of sheets.

XXxXxXxXxXx

"Looks like you're healing up fine."

Ashley looked up, smiling at Dr. Shepherd. "Oh. That's good."

"Your surgery went perfectly, with minor post-op complications. Things keep goin' so well, we might be able to get you out of here by the end of next week."

"That's good." Ashley smiled again, before turning her head back to her book.

"What's on?"

Ashley looked up. "I'm sorry?"

"The TV," Derek said smiling, gesturing towards the animated scene.

"Ohhh...I wasn't really paying attention," Ashley said smiling. She glanced up towards the screen. "Looks like a movie. Oh, I saw this one once. 'Dancing With September.'"

Derek nodded, still smiling. "Sounds cool."

Ashley glanced at him. "Did you need something, Dr. Shepherd?"

"That bruise looks nasty."

Ashley stared. "Sorry?"

"The one on your shoulder."

Ashley quickly readjusted the sleeve of her hospital gown.

"Ummmmmm...I'm going to go to the bathroom."

xXxXxXxXx

"How are you?"

Cristina looked up with the shadow of a guilt on her face. "Hmmm?"

"I asked you how you were doing."

"Oh. Oh! Um...I'm fine. Fi-"

Burke broke in with the glint of a smile that twitched against his face. "Are you stealing charts?"

Cristina opened her mouth to protest, but her voice came out crisp and sharp. "Yes. Now if you excuse me, I have rounds in a minute, and Bailey informed me that the _next_ time I'm late, I'll be doing scut for a week."

Burke rose his eyebrows at her, a small smile on his face, as he watched her snap shut the chart she was holding, and hurry down the hall.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Cristina entered the apartment late that night, closing the door quietly behind her. George wasn't there, he'd mentioned being on-call that night, but as she walked into the living room she was greeted by the sight of Burke laying on his stomach in front of the sofa, his head hidden behind a chair. A vacuum hummed next to him, hurting her ears.

She bent down next to him, slipping her jacket onto the couch. "What are you doing?" She yelled.

He rolled over on his stomach, rubbing the side of her leg unintentionally. "Cleaning," he yelled back over the sound of the vacuum.

Cristina shut off the vacuum with a swift movement of her hand, sitting down next to him on the floor. "Well, stop it."

He sat up so she was almost leaning against him, wrapping his arm gingerly around her. "How are you feeling?"

Cristina sighed quietly. "Burke."

He pulled her closer into him, kissing the side of her head. "Yes."

"I have lived...with what my father did to me...for 24 years. I'm over it."

Burke frowned into her hair, thinking of the nightmares, and the crying, and the distance she put between them. "I wouldn't be. I wouldn't be anywhere near over it. And my job as a boyfriend is to make sure you _do_ get over it, and also make sure you become deliriously happy as I continue to sweep you off your feet."

"Is there anything particular you wanted to get from this conversation, besides making me remember things I don't want to remember and also remind me that I have, never, _ever_ been deliriously happy about...anything?"

"Have you talked to Ashley yet?"

"What?" Cristina's voice had become curiously high-pitched as she let out a small laugh.

"You know," Burke laughed. "Your sister."

"Why would I?"

"Well...because she had radical life-saving brain surgery. And you two are obviously close, she sent you that letter and video tape, and we watched that together, you two must be friends, it was so silly, and you were so happy to hear from her."

"Yeah. Mostly we email. She sends me those tapes, it makes me laugh, her friends...I don't know if we're really _close,_ though." Cristina said doubtfully.

"Well, maybe you _should_ talk to her. See how she's doing."

Cristina frowned skeptically. "That would be kind of weird."

Burke laughed. "She's your sister!"

"I guess."

Burke nudged her slightly. "So will you?"

Cristina glanced up at him. "Will you come with me?"

Burke looked down at her, a little surprised, but smiling. "Sure."

Cristina moved closer to him so she was almost sitting on his lap. "Good."


	11. Chapter 11

**A Love That Will Never Grow Old**

chapter 11 (Oh. My. God.)

by greyeyedgirl!1

a/n: I _don't _feel guilty. I don't. I spent almost an hour studying for my math test, I am ALLOWED to indulge in my fanfic.

So what if I haven't done my science worksheets or my Economics chapter or my English term paper? Doing homework makes my _teachers_ happy, but that's only 4 people. Writing fanfic can make _several_ people happy. And what's wrong with wanting to make people happy? Huh?

See? I don't feel guilty. :D

"Hey, Ash."

Ashley looked up with a start, snapping her book shut. "Cristina! Oh, hi. And hi, Dr...Burke, right?"  
"Yes," said Burke smiling, staying towards the back of the room, gently guiding Cristina forward with his hand.

"So what's up?"

"Nothing much. Just wanted to see how you were doing." Cristina smiled at her sister but turned her head back to look at Burke pointedly.

"Oh. Well, I feel fine. I mean, I was a little dazed right after the surgery, but I'm fine now." Ashley looked up at them with a bright smile. "How are you, Cris?"

Cristina smiled, sitting down next to the bed. "I'm good. I got your tape."

Ashley grinned. "Did you see the part where Brooke said 'get your island on?'"

Cristina covered her mouth, bending her head. "What does that even _mean_?" She snickered.

Ashley shrugged, still smiling. "We're very quirky."

Cristina laughed.

"So how are you guys doing? I mean, since you live together and stuff." Ashley looked inquisitively at Cristina and Preston, her legs kicking restlessly under the blanket. She seemed oblivious to her movement.

"We're-Ashley, what happened to your shoulder?"

Ashley looked down, and frowned. "Just a bump," she said, moving her hair so it covered the bruise. "Dr. Shepherd mentioned it earlier. It's fine, though, I trip all the time, I have to coordination of a-"

She was prevented of having to think of an exact word to describe her uncoordination, the phone in her hospital room had suddenly went off. "Hellooo?" Ashley asked, holding the phone to her ear, rocking in her bed and laughing. "Hi, Katrina. How's up? No, it's dreary here in this big boring hospital, but they have cable so it's not so bad, I just watch Lizzie McGuire and Boy Meets World reruns all day long." She paused from her conversation. "Sorry, my friends keep calling me," she told Cristina and Burke. The two doctors nodded, moving to leave, but Ashley made a motion for them to wait, then continued to speak into the phone. "Did you hear Danielle broke her wrist? Brooke rammed right into her in gym class. They were all playing really rough, Brooke had a busted lip by the end of it and Caitlin got kicked in the windpipe."

A few yards away, Burke winced. "Hold on, Kay, I'm getting another call." Ashley paused, pushing a button on the phone, then stuck her ear back against it. "Hello?"

For a split second, Ashley's face transformed. Then a smile lit up it, and she grinned into the phone. "Jeremy! Hey! Yeah, I'm glad to talk to you, too." Cristina raised her eyebrows, catching Ashley's eye, and blushing, Ashley nodded. Cristina smiled slightly, taking Burke's arm, and leading him carefully out of the room.

"So, basically, Jeremy is coming all this way to visit me. Isn't that sweet?" Ashley grinned at Alex, who looked down at her and tried to grin. "He must be crazy about you, kid. But who wouldn't be?"

Ashley beamed. "That's nice, Alex. Yeah, Jeremy and me started to 'go out,' a few months ago, he's really cool, he's smart and funny and sweet. And he's got awesome parents, that's why his mom is taking him to visit me, on his dad's plane. Jeremy's dad is the big manager-something-or-other at this big airport in New York. He even owns a couple planes."

"Cool," Alex said, recording Ashley's BP on a small chart next to her bed. "So, is he the one beating you up?"

There was a silence in the room, and for the millisecond it lasted, it was almost deafening.

"What?" Ashley said, her voice mid-pitched.

Alex looked at her. "You have at least two major bruises. You claim to have hit your head falling down the stairs but didn't tell anyone when it happened. You-"

"I DID fall down the stairs! I trip all the time! It's no big deal, I'm just clumsy!" Ashley stared at him, frantic, as Alex nodded, knowingly, as he continued to write Ashley's stats on her chart.

"I DID, Dr. Karev. And if you don't believe me, I don't care. But I'm going to tell Dr. Shepherd that I would really prefer you being taken off my case. That's really horrible. No one's ever _hurt_ me, I just fell. It's not that unusual, you know, I seem to be going through my teenage-awkward phrase. Wasn't the frizzy hair a big clue?"

"Your hair's not frizzy," Alex said absently, closing her chart. "I gotta go, see ya later kiddo."

He walked out of the room, leaving an angry Ashley behind, grimacing at her hospital blanket.

The apartment smelled good when she walked in. She looked around, curiously, as she slipped off her jacket, leaving it carelessly on the couch.

"Burke?"

He appeared almost immediately, slipping out of the doorway of their bedroom. She did a quick breath intake, taking in his cream-colored suit, finding a smile on her face.

"Hey, handsome."

Burke laughed, coming closer, kissing her quickly on the head. "I made us dinner. I thought you might like it. Filet mignon for you, but I opted for something different for _my_ supper. Come on, in here," he said, signaling with a tip of his head.

Cristina looked down at her maroon shirt and dark jeans. "Should I change?"

Burke laughed, pulling her forward. "You look beautiful. Come on." He pulled her gently into the kitchen. Cristina paused, looking around through the dim light.

"There's candles."

Burke smiled. "Yes." Cristina looked at him. "Oh."

Cristina paused. "Why?"

Burke turned to look at her. "I thought we'd have a special, private dinner. Just talk."

"Oh. Okay."

Burke continued to smile, as he tugged on the corner of his jacket. "Here," he said, leaning forward across the table. "I'll cut your steak."

Cristina forced a smile, taking in Burke's appearance. "Thank you."

Burke grinned up at her.

"Mmmm. That was..."

"Yeah." Burke rolled over, kissing the side of her head as he wrapped his arms around her, and they slowly drifted off to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**A Love That Will Never Grow Old**

chapter 12

greyeyedgirl

The sun was shining, almost tiringly, on young Ashley's bright face on the lank Seattle evening, when some sudden unexpected color, besides the blank white of the hospital corridors, as the door to the hospital swung open.

The boy who entered was tall, seemingly older than his almost fourteen years. He seemed to emancipate some odd kind of charm, at the sight of Ashley a smile flitted across his face and the glow in the room seemed to take on an even odder tint.

"Hey," he exclaimed excitedly, moving to take the distilled chair at the foot of Ashley's hospital bed. Ashley beamed, sitting up further in her bed, barely acknowledging the presence of her older sister and Dr. Burke standing in the corner, Cristina with one eyebrow slightly raised, her face otherwise some forced mixture of nonchalant and bored, Burke, however, looking observant, his eyes focusing lightly on the two teenagers in front of him.

"Oh...ah, Cristina? This is Jeremy Robbins. Jeremy, this is my sister, Cristina Yang, and her boyfriend, Dr. Burke." Ashley's voice was light as she smiled hesitantly under the bright evening light seeping through the window.

Jeremy swung his gaze so his charmed smile was facing Dr. Burke. "It's nice to meet you, Dr. Yang, Dr. Burke." He moved his hands to shake each, Cristina pretended not to notice, but Burke extended his hand, taking in Jeremy's grip with the same politely observant expression.

"It's nice to meet you too, Jeremy. So, how long have you two known each other?" Burke asked smoothly.

"Oh, we've went to school together since we were younger," Jeremy responded, looking back at Ashley.

"That's nice. And how long have you been seeing each other?"

Jeremy blushed. "About a year."

Burke smiled, his face still politely observant, as he leaned his head slightly to the side. "Quite a period."

Jeremy just smiled. Ashley was playing with the thread on her sheet, her feet still jumping, almost as if she wasn't really listening to what was going on around her. Cristina was frowning now.

"Yeah." Jeremy said finally, grinning. Cristina cleared her throat, moving her hand to tug lightly on the cuff of Burke's lab coat. Burke glanced down at her, shifted one eyebrow upward, the fake smile still intact.

"I'm sorry, Ashley, we have a patient to attend to. We'll check in on you later, all right?" Burke said smoothly.

Ashley's head snapped up. "Oh, right, Dr. Burke." She blushed, seeing Burke's slight smile. "Oh, right. Preston, I mean."

"There ya go," Burke said, slightly teasing, as he turned to escort Cristina out of the room.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Several Hours Later

"I don't like him."

Cristina paced restlessly around the on-call room. "Your point is?"

Burke frowned. "There's something about him. It's not right. A boy that age hardly ever sticks to one girl."

Cristina plopped down on the lower bunk bed, brushing her hair from her face. "Maybe he likes her." She looked at him pointedly.

Burke squinted his eyes at the ceiling, wringing his hands. "That boy is beating her."

Cristina turned to stare at him. "What did you say?"

Burke looked at her. "Are you honestly _surprised_?"

Cristina glared. "I'm never surprised."

Burke stood up from the hard wooden chair in the corner. "This isn't a joke or a game, Cristina. He's hurting her. Your sister. Don't you think she's been through enough?"

Cristina didn't answer.

"Cristina." Burke bent down on his knees in front of her, taking her hand. Cristina stared. "This is your family. Someday she is going to be my family. And more importantly, she is an innocent child." Burke shook with his inner anger. Cristina watched him carefully as he took his glasses from his front scrubs pocket and started to clean them furiously.

"What do we do?" She murmured finally.

Burke looked up at her. "We have to have proof."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Eight months earlier

"_Daddy, what are you doing?" The tiny girl looked up at her father in confusion._

"_It's okay, baby. Daddy loves you."_

"_It hurts, Daddy. I don't like it."_

"_It's okay."_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

eight months earlier

"_Get off of me! What are you doing?"_

"_I thought you loved me."_

"_Jeremy...Jeremy!" Ashley cried desperately into the pillow, covering her face as she felt a bruise bloom. "No. Please don't."_

_Jeremy pulled himself off of her. "Stupid bitch. Got what you deserved." He hit her, straight to the stomach, and Ashley's vision got blurry as she clutched over._

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Jeremy." Burke walked up smoothly, smiling pleasantly at the young boy in front of him, more than half a foot shorter.

The boy grinned, charming in his own right, the odd glint in his eye concealed beneath a spark of friendliness. "Dr. Burke."

Burke forced a smile, leading the young man down the hall. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something. Man to man."

Jeremy: "Sure, Dr. Burke."

Burke smiled. "Excellent. Well, as you know, I'm in a very serious relationship with Cristina. _Your_ girlfriend's sister."

Jeremy smiled hesitantly, looking at Burke's face carefully. "Yes, sir."

"Well, someday in the not-so far-off future, I'm going to ask Cristina to marry me, making Ashley my sister-in-law."

Jeremy looked at him curiously, the smile still plastered on. "...Congratulations, Dr. Burke."

Burke grinned. "Thank you. But now, on to more important matters." He paused in his step, and Jeremy turned to watch him.

"I've never had a little sister. I was always rather protective of my best friends', but I never had one of my own. You should know that I already think of Ashley as one, though."

Jeremy watched him closely from beneath the friendly curtain, before answering. "I'm sure Ashley would like that. She seems to really like you."

Burke went on as if Jeremy had never spoken. With his words he stepped closer, until he almost had Jeremy cornered in the nearly deserted hospital hallway. Jeremy took a step back, this time almost in fear.

"I do not deal well with my baby sisters, or anyone that my girlfriend finds an important addition to her life, being punched or beaten."

Jeremy didn't flinch. Burke went on.

"And if I find out...about any bruises...or beatings...or even harsh words, you will be a very sorry young boy, do you understand me?"

Jeremy froze, not sure what, and if, Burke knew.

"Yes, sir," he said strongly. _Don't show fear. Maybe he's just protective. Maybe he doesn't know anything._

Burke smiled again. "Excellent. We have an agreement, then." He took a step backwards away from Jeremy, who let out a small breath. Burke tipped his head a bit. "I'll be seeing you around, Jeremy."


End file.
